Immigrants Needs and Public Service Provisions in Peel Region

(Published in Plan Canada and is the copyright of the Canadian Institute of Planners)

In municipalities such as Peel where population growth is driven largely by immigration, the demand for community services could be high. The Plan Canada journal article Immigrants’ Needs and Public Service Provisions in Peel Region studied a small sample (20 residents) of in-depth interviews with residents in two South Asian communities, the Heart Lake and Springdale areas of Brampton and the Erindale area of Mississauga, and matched control areas. Two control areas provided a comparison for the two ethnic communities’ impact on demand for services.

This study analyzed South Asians in the supply and demand framework. From the demand side, sampled residents were asked about their expressed needs, experiences and behaviours while community organizations were surveyed about their observations of the immigrants’ needs. From the supply side, the goal was to identify issues from the delivery of services by interviewing caseworkers and managers. Recommendations for improving the delivery of services are made in the article. The article was written by Sandeep Kumar Agrawal (Associate Professor, Ryerson University), Mohammad Qadeer (Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University), and Arvin Prasad (Director Planning Policy and Research, Region of Peel).

The article was published in the Summer 2007 issue of Plan Canada and is the copyright of the Canadian Institute of Planners. The article is available in pdf format for download.
(PDF 248 KB, 5 pages)